[Summit] The Kitten, the Coyote and the White Skunk

[Theresa Mathiesen]

Great story, Eric!
You've brought a corner of our beautiful East Side to life... and the
Great White Skunk to mythic status!

-- Elva

On 1/3/07, Eric Army <eric.army at cox.net> wrote:
>
>
> These post subjects read like a children's story book...
>
> One day a kitten was frolicking along the Boulevard, dodging runners and
> distracting dogs, enjoying the seasonably warm winter day. Spotting an
> interesting disruption in the Swan Point Cemetery stone wall, she skittered
> across the road to investigate. Soon after dipping into the mysterious
> underbrush of the local arboretum, she was awash in new sights and sounds.
> The rustling leaves drowned out the cars, though only yards away, while the
> chipmunks whistled as they chased each other along the tree branches.
> Then, stepping into a clearing, our free-spirited adventurer came across one
> of the infamous neighborhood coyotes. She had been warned of such animals,
> graceful and harmless, yet not as rare as one might think in our slightly
> wooded urban environment. Their charm and beauty was only tempered by their
> natural predatory instincts towards lesser mammals, of course only when
> provoked, hungry, or up for some adventure of their own.
> Unsure of the coyote's intentions, our kitten stepped left, then darted
> right, inadvertently catching our new friend's attention. The coyote's ears'
> perked and it started--but with a hobble. Our kitten relished the extra
> moment this bought her, but knew she needed cover, and bounded behind a
> tree, then over a log towards an interesting patch of white where she
> thought she might lose her pursuer. But alas! The hobbling coyote was on hot
> her tail.
> As our kitten fled, the white patch began to look less like refuge, and more
> like a ball of fluff. Inquisitive to the end, our fearless explorer leapt
> through the final bramble and found herself now between a hobbling coyote
> and the fabled White Skunk. As she turned to run again, not sure of to where
> this time, the storied skunk stepped in front of our kitten, now cornered,
> and lazily proceeded to amble past her, into the path of the once Hobbling,
> but now Screeching, Coyote who, in his
> many years, had more than once learned the fate of those that cross White
> Skunk. Our coyote, whose own curiosity began to quickly wane in light of a
> feared fumigation, hobbled with what was left of his dignity in a direction
> other than that of the gently swaying white puffy tail.
> Our young kitten friend breathed a sigh of relief at her unexpected rescue,
> and the stately old skunk merely motioned with his tail for her to follow
> him. Her call of the wild fulfilled for the day, she happily let him lead
> her away from the clearing and the coyote, the woods and their subtle
> whispers, back to the stone wall. The White Skunk looked both ways, and
> crossed one lane of the Boulevard to bring her back to adventure of domestic
> variety: barking dogs, plodding feet and curious children. As the thankful,
> and slightly more learned, kitten made her way back to her home off Hope
> Street, a few passer-by-ers in the park noticed a curious white animal,
> slowly ambling its way along the stone wall, into the bushes.
>
> Wisdom overcame Instinct that day, and it saved our coyote from a putrid
> perfume. The Respected also watched out for the Troubled, saving our naive
> kitten from an unknown fate. And maybe a few of the passer-by-ers on the
> Boulevard gleaned some wisdom or insight of their own into the ways of the
> Wise and Respected from the fable of the Kitten, the Coyote and the White
> Skunk...
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